SR,

Pascoe, purportedly citing Mitchell (in Dark Emu, 2018, p. 15):

"‘[T]he grass is pulled…and piled in hayricks, so that the aspect of the desert was softened into the agreeable semblance of a hay-field…we found the ricks or hay-cocks extended for miles.’“

From Mitchell's 1848 journal, p. 90:

"Dry heaps of this grass, that had been pulled expressly for the purpose of gathering the seed, lay along our path for many miles. I counted nine miles along the river, in which we rode through this grass only, reaching to our saddle-girths, and the same grass seemed to grow back from the river, at least as far as the eye could reach through a very open forest. I had never seen such rich natural pasturage in any other part of New South Wales.”

Not that there is evidence of farming in either quote, only of gathering dry grass in order to strip the seed in Mitchell's. And we come back to it again and again: why grow grasses which are plentiful (in good seasons) right across Australia (and in Africa and Asia too where it is called 'famine food') ?

" .... rich natural pasturage .... "

Over to you, SR.

Joe

Dear loudmouth2,

Over to me hey?

Okay, let's go.

How on earth do you even sleep at night? So determined to discredit this man you gloss over anything which may not align with your deeply antagonistic attitude toward him.

The offending line in the book;

"‘[T]he grass is pulled…and piled in hayricks, so that the aspect of the desert was softened into the agreeable semblance of a hay-field…we found the ricks or hay-cocks extended for miles.’“

Pascoe wasn't quoting from the journal entry you claim but rather this one with my capitalisation;

“In the neighbourhood of our camp the grass had been pulled to a very great extent, AND PILED IN HAY-RICKS SO THAT THE ASPECT OF THE DESERT WAS SOFTENED INTO THE AGREEABLE SEMBLANCE OF A HAY-FIELD. The grass had evidently been thus laid up by the natives, but for what purpose we could not imagine. At first I thought the heaps were only the remains of encampments, as the aborigines sometimes sleep on a little dry grass; but when WE FOUND THE RICKS, OR HAYCOCKS, EXTENDING FOR MILES we were quite at a loss to understand why they had been made.”

Unless you are going to call using 'is' rather 'had been' a hanging offence what is your beef?

Now you really can't claim not to have been aware of the correct passage because I produced it in full earlier in this thread in a post you personally responded to.

Do you have different example because this one is done.

Over to you.

SR,

So, even in this different example, Mitchell describes the gathering of wild grasses by women, while Pascoe's very selective quote (in this case) leaves out inconvenient sections, about possible explanations (Mitchell does not seem to have suggested cultivation) such as sleeping arrangements, for example.

So how is that any evidence of early farming ? i.e. in ways similar to those of early peasant farmers around the world ? Did Mitchell see any evidence of the cultivation or the soil, or any implements such as hoes ?

In fact, descriptions of early farming practice, and current peasant farming practice, assumes that a large holding (for one family) would rarely exceed twenty acres, and be surrounded by jealously-guarded fences. Nine miles, even only a mile wide, would encompass nearly six thousand acres, or - at that rate - the labour of three hundred families. Clans don't often ever get that big without fracturing, even if all within was sweetness and light and love.

Clearly Mitchell was describing the first stages of gathering seed to grind into damper (i.e. Pascoe's 'bread' and 'cakes').

Surely that's not all you've got ?

Joe

Steele,

And still not a shred of evidence for Aboriginal farming, of course the supporters of Pascoe the Aboriginal have to denigrate the hunters because part of your philosophy is to deny present day hunters the practice of their culture.

Dear loudmouth2,

I am really getting heartily sick of the resident right-wing goon squad flinging out slur on top of slander and when they get called out it never apologising but moving straight on to the next bit of bluster and balderdash. Shadow Minister, mhaze and yourself have become shining examples.

Mate, you asserted that Pascoe deliberately misquoted Mitchell and gave an example. Your example was completely and utterly discredited. Yet there was no retraction, no apology, nothing just a determination to crack on slandering the man.

You really need to provide a mea culpa. Not to do so puts you in the Trumpette camp where the truth does not matter, where you thumb your nose at any sense of natural justice, where attack regardless of its validity is paramount.

You have become just another bad faith puppet reciting the playbook of cretins like Bolt.

You have a chance of at least a semblance of credibility, I suggest you take it.

Pascoe merely built on the damage by Gamage.

I do wish someone would address the question posed in the OP.

Is Bruce Pascoe an Indigenous Australian?